Cercosporamide is a natural substance isolated from cultures of the fungus Cercosporidium heningsii (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,587, The Journal of Organic Chemistry, 1991, Vol. 56, pp. 909-910, Tetrahedron, 1992, Vol. 48, pp. 4757-4766, and Molecular and Cellular Biology, 1994, Vol. 14, pp. 1017-1025).
Cercosporamide is known to have antifungal activity. In addition, some derivatives of cercosporamide are also known to have antifungal activity similar to that of cercosporamide (U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,587).
Cercosporamide is also useful as a precursor for synthesizing derivatives thereof, and there is currently a need for a more efficient production process.
Although the fungus Cercosporidium heningsii is known to be a microorganism that produces cercosporamide, fungi belonging to the genus Lachnum and Pseudaegerita were not known to produce cercosporamide.